John Calvin Commentary 1 Peter 1:22

"Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently:" — 1 Peter 1:22 (ASV)

Seeing ye have purified your souls, or, Purifying your souls. Erasmus renders the words poorly, “Who have purified,” and so on. For Peter does not declare what they had done, but reminds them of what they ought to do. The participle is indeed in the past tense, but it may be rendered as a gerund, “By purifying,” and so on. The meaning is that their souls would not be capable of receiving grace until they were purified, and by this our uncleanness is proved.

But so that he might not seem to ascribe to us the power of purifying our souls, he immediately adds, through the Spirit; as though he had said, “Your souls are to be purified, but as you cannot do this, offer them to God, so that He may take away your filth by His Spirit.”

He only mentions souls, though they also needed to be cleansed from the defilements of the flesh, as Paul instructs the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:1). But as the principal uncleanness is within, and necessarily draws with it that which is outward, Peter was satisfied with mentioning only the former. It is as though he had said that not only outward actions ought to be corrected, but the very hearts ought to be thoroughly reformed.

He afterwards points out the manner, for purity of soul consists in obedience to God. Truth is to be taken for the rule which God prescribes to us in the Gospel. Nor does he speak only of works, but rather faith holds the primacy here. Hence Paul specially teaches us in the first and last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans that faith is that by which we obey God; and Peter in Acts, chapter fifteen, bestows on it this eulogy: that God by it purifies the heart.

Unto love of the brethren, or, unto brotherly love. He briefly reminds us what God especially requires in our life, and the mark to which all our endeavors should be directed. So Paul, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, when speaking of the perfection of the faithful, makes it consist in love.

And this is what we ought to notice more carefully, because the world makes its own sanctity consist of the merest trifles and almost overlooks this, the chief thing. We see how the Papists weary themselves beyond measure with a thousand invented superstitions; in the meantime, love, which God especially commends, is the last thing they consider. This, then, is the reason why Peter calls our attention to it when speaking of a life rightly formed.

He had spoken before of the mortification of the flesh and of our conformity with the will of God; but he now reminds us of what God would have us cultivate throughout life, that is, mutual love towards one another. For by that we also testify that we love God; and by this evidence God proves who they are who really love Him.

He calls it unfeigned (ἀνυπόκριτον), as Paul calls faith in 1 Timothy 1:5; for nothing is more difficult than to love our neighbors in sincerity. For self-love rules, which is full of hypocrisy; and besides, everyone measures his love, which he shows to others, by his own advantage, and not by the rule of doing good. He adds, fervently; for the more slothful we are by nature, the more everyone ought to stimulate himself to fervor and earnestness, and that not only once, but more and more daily.